Vietnam is the fourth most confident country in the world – up five places since March this year, according to The Nielsen Company’s Global Consumer Confidence Survey. Consumer confidence in Vietnam has increased for the first time after declining for six consecutive surveys since March 2007.
Vietnam’s confidence index jumped from 85, in April this year, to 109 this month. In contrast, the global average which jumped 9 points stands at 86, while Vietnam saw a rise of 28 points.
“If consumers have shifted gears across the globe from recession to recovery – Vietnam is truly at the head of the pack with an increase of 28 points and ranking 4th most confident country globally,” – said Mr. Darin Williams, Managing Director, The Nielsen Company Vietnam.
The world is emerging from the economic crisis, and with it, global consumer confidence is rebounding, according to the latest edition of the Nielsen Global Consumer Confidence Index, which jumped from 77 index points in April to 86 points this month. Brazil and key Asian markets are posting double-digit increases in consumer sentiment, while the U.S. recorded its first increase in consumer confidence since 2007.
Nielsen’s Global Consumer Confidence Index tracks consumer confidence, major concerns and spending habits among more than 30,500 Internet users in 54 countries. In the latest round of the survey conducted between 28 September and 16 October 2009, Hong Kong posted the largest consumer confidence increase in the third quarter compared to Q2, up 14 points from 79 to 93 index points, followed by South Korea (+13 points) and Brazil (+12 points).
India, Indonesia and Norway continued to top the global rankings for the most confident nations, while the most pessimistic nations were Latvia and Japan.
Nielsen’s global consumer confidence in October rebounded to almost the same level as the first half of 2008 before the very worst of the financial crisis hit global markets. “The survey shows how much the pace of economic recovery has accelerated in the last six months, especially in Brazil and some Asian markets,” said Russo. “Nielsen consumer, retail and media data also shows a trend of consumers shifting gears from recessionary into recovery mode.”
69 % of Vietnamese surveyed said their nation is currently in a recession compared to 76 % in April 2009. Fifty-five % of Vietnamese believe they will be out of the recession in the next 12 months, while a notable 22 % said no and another 23 % stated “don’t know.”
Complimenting the significant jump in consumer confidence, 54 % of Vietnamese citizens believe job prospects are good to excellent over the coming 12 months. Sixty-six % also believe the state of their personal finances is good to excellent. Despite a relatively positive outlook on jobs and finances, 46 % of Vietnamese consumers stated that timing is “not so good” to buy the things they want and need.
But Vietnamese consumers remain relatively cautious: 51 % stated they will put their money into savings after covering essential living costs. But a work/life balance is still important to Vietnamese, with holidays/vacations (39%) coming in second. Their hunger for new technology products (32%) is still strong, although not as strong as it was earlier in the year. In March, Vietnamese ranked first globally as the consumers who prioritize spending on new technology after covering essential living costs; but in March that ranking slipped to 7th.
It seems consumer confidence is up, but the Vietnamese are still well aware of the recession as job security is the top concern (29%) on their minds. But similar to global trends it’s not all recession-related as their second biggest concern is work-life balance (18%) and health (17%).
Vietnamese
